Airbus and International SOS are launching a joint pilot project on transporting medical goods via both unmanned drones and aircraft. The project will investigate the feasibility of such transport in different environments.
International SOS is a company that helps customers with tasks around employee safety and health while travelling abroad, including remote areas. The company does this by providing medical assistance and safety services to customers. Thus, the company delivers medical supplies and equipment in both urban and remote areas. Within the pilot project, the feasibility of transporting goods using drones and aircraft from urban to rural areas and from ships to the mainland will be investigated.
Pilot projects
Initially, they are looking at the possibility of setting up pilot projects in Singapore and Indonesia. This will involve cooperation with both local aviation and maritime authorities. If these projects are successful, the cooperation may be expanded to other locations around the world where International SOS operates.
The cooperation is part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both parties. As part of this MoU, Airbus and International SOS also want to look at opportunities to support mobile hospitals and offer both satellite services.
Details for the project are still lacking. However, it is obvious that the drones and aircraft used will be supplied by Airbus. In addition, the parties report that the drones that will be used will have a maximum payload of more than 5 kilograms. Airbus and International SOS talk about 'hub-to-hub' logistics services, suggesting that the drones will take off and land at fixed locations.
Transporting blood
Airbus and International SOS are not the first parties with transporting medical goods and equipment using drones. For example, we previously wrote about Matternet, which late last year started using drones to ship blood for blood transfusions and diagnostic samples between hospitals in Switzerland. To do so, the company deploys its in-house developed Matternet M2 drones, which can carry a load of up to 2 kilograms or four litres over a distance of 2 kilometres.
The Matternet M2 drones land on a specially designed station called the Matternet Station. This station of about 2m² can be placed on the roof of a hospital, for example, and functions as a landing site for the M2 drones. The station also acts as a kind of air traffic control for drones and prevents drones from colliding with each other. The drones are controlled via the Matternet Cloud, where, among other things, flight paths for the drones are generated.
The project was initially carried out in the Swiss city of Lugano. Matternet announced in June to expand the project to both Bern and Zurich. In addition, Matternet also announced in June that it had raised $16 million during an investment round. Among others, aircraft manufacturer Boeing invested in the company.
Getting defibrillators on site faster
We also wrote about drone startup Flirtey, which uses drones in the US to transport defibrillators to people who have had heart attacks. Thanks to the use of drones, Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) can be brought to patients faster, allowing bystanders to immediately deploy the devices to defibrillate patients and increase their chances of survival.
The project is being carried out by Flirtey in collaboration with the Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority (REMSA). This organisation provides emergency care in 11 US states. Once a report of a heart attack arrives at REMSA's emergency room, the organisation will henceforth send not only an ambulance to the patient, but also a drone with an AED. Because this drone does not have to take traffic into account and can also fly in a straight line to its destination, it can reach a patient faster than an ambulance. This is of great importance; after a heart attack, the survival rate decreases by 10% every minute a patient is defibrillated later.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Boeing (pictured)
Source: International SOS
Source: Matternet
Source: Flirtey
